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Mar 12, 2009 22:01 | Updated Mar 13, 2009
Islamic states: Criminalize defamation of Islam
By MAYA SPITZER
The Islamic states circulated a new resolution at the current session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday that would criminalize defamation of Islam as a human rights violation and encourage the imposition of Shari’a.
According to the nonbinding governmental resolution, titled “Combating Defamation of Religions,” anything deemed insulting to Islamic sensitivities would be banned as a “serious affront to human dignity” and a blatant violation of religious freedom.
The resolution would attempt to influence “local, national, regional and international levels” to incorporate such guarantees of this perceived freedom in their “legal and constitutional systems.”
“It is a covert package coordinated by Pakistan against the West,” said Leon Saltiel, director of communications at the Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch, on Thursday. “They think there is too much liberty and freedom of expression in the Western world, which therefore defames religion.”